Is the pope a Catholic? A real Catholic? There are those who have their doubts about the man arriving on our shores next week. To so-called "Old Catholics", the pope in Rome has been under suspicion since their big split with His (then) Holiness in 1870, after he was declared "Infallible".

The announcement launched what could be called a campaign for real Catholicism. "Rome has gone on a side road, which is now a motorway," declares the Right Reverend Richard Palmer, who in 1999 became the Bishop of what is known as the Reformed Liberal Catholic Church (Old Catholics). "We would maintain that we are the continuation of Roman Catholicism as it was prior to Papal Infallibility," agrees Father Jerome Lloyd, whose "mission", based in Brighton, is part of the Old Roman Catholic Church in Europe headed by the Metropolitan Bishop of the United Kingdom, Bishop Denis Beveers of Barnsley.

Since the schism from Rome, Old Catholics have been splitting from each other and now worship in a loose communion of separate "jurisdictions": "I would say in the UK there are about 50," says Palmer. He puts the total number of Old Catholics at around 5,000.

However, Lloyd disagrees with this – suggesting that some who claim to be Old Catholics don't count, on the grounds that they accept homosexuality and women priests, and estimates the membership to be in the low hundreds. Old Catholics, he says, agree with Rome in their condemnation of contraception, abortion and homosexuality but are "less obsessed" over sexual matters.

As for divorces, "If people repent, that's it: they are re-admitted to the Sacrament." Another big difference is over celibacy: their clergy can marry. Many have day jobs, full-time or part-time. One bishop is believed to support himself as an author and exorcist.

Like Palmer, Father Jerome would be happy for the pope to make it possible for them to return to the bosom of the Catholic church: "We are very pro the papacy per se. If the pope said, 'I Infallibly declare myself Fallible – will you come home?' we would say, 'Yes, Holy Father'."